Adelaide Fringe 2014

The Luck Child

David Collins

Genre: Children's Theatre

Venue: Royalty Theatre

Festival: Adelaide Fringe

Low Down

Review

I took my inner child with me to see David Collins’ The Luck Child, and she had the time of her life, along with a full house of real children at The Royalty Theatre.

Collins plays every character is this delightful tale of an evil King, a wizard, three-headed dog/cat and of course Lucky, the Luck Child.  There is just one piece of set – the best cardboard box fort I have ever seen, and all the sound effects, naturally, are performed by Collins himself. No costume changes, no props, just pure genius. 

Based on a Russian tale and adapted by Collins and Jonathan Biggins for a Sydney Theatre Company project, The Luck Child went on to win the 2012 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Production for Children.

As my inner child may not be the best judge of a show billed as suitable for 4-10 year olds so I listened to and spoke with some of the children around me. They regularly laughed with child-like abandon (funny that!) , several wanted to make the box fort as soon as they got home, and they all wanted Mum or Dad to buy them a Mr Biggins toy on the way out. The adults in the audience were offered plenty to laugh at too.

The Luck Child is a familiar and popular theme, the presentation is delightful and audience absolutely loved it. If you have children, take them. If you don’t, borrow some and take them!

Published March 1, 2014 by Fiona G Davy